Refinery Wastes

The pollution of ecosystems, either inadvertently or deliberately, has been a fact of life for millennia (Pickering and Owen, 1994). In recent times, the evolution of industrial operations has led to issues related to the disposal of a wide variety of chemical contaminants (Easterbrook, 1995). Chemical wastes that were once exotic have become commonplace and hazardous (Tedder and Pohland, 1993). Recognition of this makes it all the more necessary that steps be taken to terminate the pollution, preferably at the source or before it is discharged into the environment. It is also essential that the necessary tests be designed to detect the pollution and its effect on living forms. 

Any chemical substance, if improperly managed or disposed of, may pose a danger to living organisms, materials, structures, or the environment, by explosion or fire hazards, corrosion, toxicity to organisms, or other detrimental effects. In addition, when released to the environment, many chemical substances can be classified as hazardous or nonhazardous. Consideration must be given to the distribution of chemical wastes on land systems, in water systems, and in the atmosphere. 

In terms of waste definition, there are three basic approaches (as it pertains to petroleum, petroleum products, and nonpetroleum chemicals) to defining petroleum or a petroleum product as hazardous (1) a qualitative description of the waste by origin, type, and constituents (2) classification by characteristics based on testing procedures and (3) classification as a result of the concentraUon of specific chemical substances. 

However, various countries use different definitions of chemical waste and there are often several inconsistencies in the definitions. Usually, the definiUon involves qualification of whether or not the material is hazardous. For example, in some counties, a hazardous waste is any material that is especially hazardous to human health, air, or water, or which is explosive, flammable, or may cause disease. Poisonous waste is material that is poisonous, noxious, or polluting and whose presence on the land is liable to give rise to an environmental hazard. But in more general terms (in any country), hazardous waste is waste material that is unsuitable for treatment or disposal in municipal treatment systems, incinerators, or landfills and which therefore requires special treatment. 

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Several units are used for sulfite-paper-mill waste-liquor disposal. At least six units are used for oil-refinery wastes, whicdi sometimes include a mixture of liquid sludges, emulsions, and caustic waste... 

Corrective Action Application Fluidized bed incineration has been used to incinerate municipal wastewater treatment plant sludge, oil refinery waste, some pharmaceutical wastes, and some chemical wastes including phenolic waste, and methyl methacrylate. Heat recovery is piossible. 

API separator A facility developed by the Committee on Disposal or Refinery Wastes of the American Petroleum Institute for separation of oil from wastewater in a gravity differential and equipped with means for recovering the separated oil and removing sludge. 

Fluid catalytic cracking units present formidable emission control problems. Contaminants are present in both reactor product gas and regenerator flue gas. The reactor product contains hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and cyanides, plus combined sulfur and nitrogen in the liquid products. Hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and cyanides are handled as part of the overall refinery waste water cleanup. The combined sulfur and nitrogen may be removed by hydrotreating. 

El-Halwagi, M. M., El-Halwagi, A. M., and Manousiouthakis, V. (1992). Optimal design of dephenolization networks for petroleum-refinery wastes. Trans. Inst. Chem. Eng. 70, Part 8,131-139. 

The American Petroleum Institute Manual on Disposal of Refinery Wastes provides specific design and construction standards for APTseparators that are often used in oilfield waste disposal [24],... 

American Petroleum Institute, Manual on Disposal of Refinery Wastes, Volume on Liquid Wastes, 1st Ed.,. API, Div. of Refining, New York, 1969. 

PART 1 PETROLEUM HYDROCARBONS REFINERY WASTE AND STRANDED OIL... 

There are several different situations in which petroleum hydrocarbons pose a threat that has attracted solution by bioremediation. These include (1) oil-refinery waste and contamination of the surrounding soil, (2) leakage from oil pipelines and underground storage tanks or basins, and (3) spillage of crude oil in the marine enviromnent after accidents at sea. 

Preliminary Investigational Requirements-Petrochemical and Refinery Waste Treatment Facilities, 12020 EID 03/71, Mar. 1971. 

Zenz, F. A., Cyclone Separators, Manual on Disposal of Refinery Wastes Volume on Atmospheric Emissions, Ch. 11, Pub. No. 931, American Petroleum Institute, Washington, D.C. (1975)... 

The ability to process a wide range of feedstocks including coal, heavy oils, petroleum coke, heavy refinery residuals, refinery wastes, hydrocarbon contaminated soils, biomass, and agricultural wastes. 

Recent commercial projects use refinery waste or products that no longer have a positive market value, such as petroleum coke (petcoke) or heavy oils. Many of these projects are referred to as trigeneration plants because they produce hydrogen, power, and steam for use within the refinery and... 

Phenol has been detected in the effluent discharges of a variety of industries. It was found in petroleum refinery waste water at concentrations of 33.5 ppm (Pfeffer 1979) and 100 ppb (Paterson et al. 1996), in the treated and untreated effluent from a coal conversion plant at 4 and 4,780 ppm, respectively (Parkhurst et al. 1979), and in shale oil waste water at a maximum of 4.5 ppm (Hawthorne and Sievers 1984). It has also been detected in the effluent from a chemical specialties manufacturing plant at 0.01-0.30 ppm (Jungclaus et al. 1978), in effluent from paper mills at 5-8 ppb (Keith 1976 Paterson et al. 1996), and at 0.3 ppm in a 24-hour composite sample from a plant on the Delaware River, 2 and 4 miles downriver from a sewage treatment plant (Sheldon and Hites 1979). 

Some refinery wastes that might exhibit a degree of hazard are exempt from the Resource Conservation Recovery Act regnlation by legislation and include the following ... 

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